Road trip!!! To Mora!!! In the heartland of Sweden, Dalarna country where the views are just stunning and the company fantastic =D. So the five of us (me, Janis, Moritz, Maite and Yee-Ling) left thursday evening...just in time for Stockholm peak hour traffic! w00t! No no, the trip there was good, full of many many wow moments and also lots of praying for good weather. Encountered our first "Loppis" sign, made plans for what we were going to do in Malmö =P and listened to old school 90's =D.

So arrived in Mora that night...small town but it's nice. Our accommodation rocked too! We had our own Swedish house (it was red) complete with Swedish furnishing...red carpet on the wall =P. That night, we spent it wandering around the woods around our cabin, not the best idea especially when no one had a torch haha. BUT we took such cool night photos that all the tripping and stepping on unknown mushy (hehe, mushy XD) things was worth it

. Ok, so Mora...well, it's not very big...maybe like a couple thousand people but it's famous for the Vasaloppet, a famous cross country skiing competition celebrating the Swedish king, Gustav Vasa's escape from the Danes and then triumphant return to drive them out of Sweden. So of course we visited the museum there =) and had blue berry soup! Mmmmm....hahaha, I think it was an aquired taste.

Spent the rest of the day (Friday) travelling around Lake Siljan, a beautiful lake created by a meteor several million years ago. Ahh, the sights around that lake, the pictures do all the talking I think. First stop, to the home of Dalarna horses! Dalarna horses are these famous red wooden painted horses that you see everywhere in Sweden, they used to be for the kids to play with but the Swedes have fallen in love with them and now they're everywhere =P. They're not cheap too but of course, you have to buy one right? XDNext was a cool little town called Rättvick where there was this awesome jetty. We did some major posing on that jetty...jumping! lying down! bending over backwards! Literally! =P. We also danced around a maypole there...crazy as it may be, in the middle of a roundabout in the middle of autumn XD (people dance around the maypole as part of the midsummer celebrations)

.Then had a fantastic break on this wonderful little private pier full of amazing views followed by a great coffee & waffle break in a little Swedish town. This of course was through alternating periods of rain and sun and rain and sun and then sun and rain at the same time. Of course, Thor liked us so much that he only made it rain when we were safely inside and undercover except for this one time...but then we saw such a beautiful rainbow anyways that it was alright =D.Finished the day from atop a mountain looking over the lake as the sun was setting...ahh, what a way to end.

Next day, bear park! The Orsa Björnpark to be exact and it's apparently the largest bear park in Europe. Of course we had to enter with the sounds of Jurassic Park playing...it was all very fitting =P. There were wolves and bears and polar bears and tigers! Oh the tigers were magnificent and there were even wolverines! They were cute, running around everywhere though I hear they'd bite your fingers off like that *click*! That night, we went to my first ice hockey match, Mora vs some other town =P. Was very cool watching them skate around like that, so pro...and of course it was awesome watching them check everyone and everything to the boards

. It's just like the mighty ducks! Except they didn't say Quack, quack, quack and no flying V =(. Still, the atmosphere was kinda cool even though Mora lost. The cheer leaders never did get enough time to do their dance...Of course we then drowned our sorrows in 300 and horrible vampire movies haha...oh that was a horrible film...I blame twilight...grr

So last days....checked out of our lovely Swedish house and went to visit the UNESCO listed copper mine in Falun. I know right, UNESCO listed copper mine?? But yes! It's true! A mine that's been around from the 17th century and apparently was at one time the largest supplier of copper in Europe. Anywho, it was pretty cool, massive hole in the ground surrounded by all these old leaning buildings. Unfortunately cos of time and money we didn't actually get to go inside the mines but I assume it'll be something like sovereign hill...cold, wet and muddy =P. Then we checked out a silvermine in Sala XD...yes very geological that day. I'm glad we went to check it out though, the town was very pretty and the mine was very cool. In one the old pits they even had a high ropes course built over it! =D

Anyways, gotta go do homework XD But what a fantastic road trip to the heart of Sweden! Thank you Janis and Moritz for organising it! =D Can't wait till we actually go to Malmö! =P

yes! pretty much all the photos of water are of Siljan lake, it's an amazing area. I see why all the swedes love coming here in the summer. And yeah, that carpet on the wall was kinda weird but it's a swedish colour =P